Monday, September 23, 2013

King of the Jungle

Happy Monday, everyone! Here's to the start of a great work week, and a wonderful first official day of autumn as well! I know most people are sad to say goodbye to summer, but personally, I'm more than ready to embrace cozy knits, boots, and tights. I love the changing hues of leaves melting into sunsets, or contrasting against a bright blue sky before colouring the ground. I drew inspiration from these golden browns and purple shadows to create today's nail art. After not being too particularly happy with tiger nail art, I tried my luck at another furry, majestic creature: the lion.

When I started planning out this nail art I wasn't sure if I should paint the lion's face -and- mane on one nail. I settled on keeping the face as the central focus, with the mane on the adjacent nails. I was unsure if everything would align properly for photos, but I think it worked out quite nicely! I kept it simple for the rest of the nails with branches and small bits of greenery. I like the white background behind the design, as I think it adds a nice bit of contrast.

As always, here are the progress shots of the lion's face. For reference, this one nail took about an hour to paint. I always find fur the hardest texture to emulate, but I think I'm getting better. I think my technique is also becoming pretty solid and consistent now. I work mostly on just building shadows until everything is distinct.

I started with a base of American Apparel T-Shirt on all of my nails. Following the progress photo, I started painting the lion with a small paint brush and American Apparel Palm Springs. I continued to add detail and shadow with American Apparel Makeup, American Apparel Dynasty, and American Apparel Raccoon. I then added highlights with American Apparel T-Shirt, American Apparel California Trooper, and American Apparel Manila. For the branches I used the same colours, and the leaves were done in American Apparel Army Jacket, followed by American Apparel Hunter.

I'll leave you with a closeup shot of the finished look. Thank you so much for reading, and feel free to leave any suggestions for more animal nails!